A&R director Gregg Geller took over stewardship
of the Elvis Presley catalog at RCA in time to orchestrate a series
of releases marking Presley's 50th birthday (January 8, 1985). This
compilation put together 12 of Presley's hottest rock & roll tracks
from 1956-1957, including his versions of standards like Little
Richard's "Long Tall Sally," and Carl Perkins's "Blue Suede Shoes,"
Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," and numbers written for him, such
as "Jailhouse Rock." Unlike the similar, but ill-fated I Was the
One, which attempted to modernize '50s rock tracks with technology
and overdubbing, this album was "digitally remastered from original
monophonic master tapes," and it sounded great. (AllMusic Review by
William Ruhlmann
)